1. Field of the Present Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus refers to a data size of image data and thereby if an area sufficient to write the image data can be found in a RAM (Random Access Memory), then the image forming apparatus writes the image data in the RAM, and if an area sufficient to write the image data can not be found in the RAM, then the image forming apparatus writes the image data in a storage device.
However, until the end of the image data is determined and the size of the whole image data is determined, the aforementioned image forming apparatus hardly determines whether the image forming apparatus should write the image in the RAM or in the storage device.
For example, when the image forming apparatus receives a print request from an external device such as a host device and the print request includes print image data, the image forming apparatus can not determine which the image forming apparatus should write the print image data, in the RAM or in the storage device, until the whole of the print image data is received. Therefore, in such a case, the print image data is always written in the storage device.
In general, read/write speeds of a storage device are lower than ones of a RAM, and therefore the print image data was written in the storage device although an area sufficient to write the print image data can be found in the RAM, and consequently a print process based on the print image data is delayed in comparison with writing it in the RAM. Further, if the storage device is an SSD (Solid State Drive) or the like using a NAND flash memory, then the number of writing times increases and consequently deterioration of the storage device is accelerated.